Merry Christmas
by SnowPlow
Summary: Yukinoshita Yukino's Christmas during her first year of high school. This is the holiday of the ice princess without a single person she could call a comrade.


"Are you really sure you can't make it, Yukino-chan?"

"Nee-san, it would be improper of me to attend it while sneezing periodically. Consider it my way of being considerate to the guests."

"There's just no convincing you, huh? But promise mom and I that you will make it for the New Year's meeting! Bye-bye!"

"Good night, Nee-san."

I touched the icon labelled end on my smartphone screen, cutting off communications with my sister Haruno. Sighing with fatigue, I placed my phone on the table and reclined on the couch in my living room.

I turned on the television, hoping to catch something interesting on the news channel. A shoplifting had occurred in a remote part of Japan, but the thief was caught within an hour. The gracious store owner gave a fruitcake to the policeman that swiftly arrived. A patient was miraculously cured from cancer today. The doctors were not entirely sure what had caused it, but it was clear that the chances of recovery was low for this patient.

I shut off the television. It seemed that the world was rejoicing today. That was to be expected, for today was December 25th. For the average person, it was a time to put aside the worries of work and study and spend time with your family.

My apartment was well-insulated from sound. No matter what racket the neighbours would make, little of it would be transmitted to my ears as long as I kept the front door closed. In addition, little sound was produced within my own apartment, which consisted of the silent humming of the refrigerator and the tick-tock of the clock. I, myself, was not moving around, and there was no one else present besides me. With almost no sound being coming from outside or inside my apartment, the whole place was quiet.

I felt dizzy and light-headed. My nose was stuffed with mucous, making it difficult to breathe. As I sat there on the couch, I would blow my nose every five minutes, while sniffing many times during the intermediate intervals. My responses were slowed, and my actions had less strength in them.

While living alone, being sick greatly hampered my well-being. Because of my sickness, I found it difficult to navigate around my own apartment. Going outside was out of the question. Due to that, I was forced to miss the annual Christmas meeting between my family and important family friends.

The congestion in my nose was overbearing. It was an autonomous reaction for a person to breathe in and out; it could not be stopped not even if there was a mass of sticky fluid clogging up the pipes. Breathing in with little air coming in and breathing out with most of the air remaining trapped in the nose felt almost like someone was forcibly constricting my nose. It felt incredibly stuffy. Though, I suppose that being at the meeting would have been even stuffier.

I let my body fall sideways. With a plop, I laid down lengthwise along the couch. I closed my eyes and placed the back of my left hand on top of my forehead in an attempt to stifle the dizziness.

When I had decided to live alone, there was, of course, opposition from my family. One of the expected arguments was that if I were to get sick, no one would take care of me. I had assured them that I would not get sick, and in the low chance that I did, I would be able to take care of myself. For some inexplicable reason, my older sister supported me in my decision. For that person to aid someone was rare. She probably wanted to see me suffer as I faced life alone.

With nothing to do on this Christmas day at the end of a year, my thoughts naturally lead to memories of the events that had occurred this year. I graduated from middle school on, as others have called it, a high note. Being at the top of the school in terms of grades, I received praises from both teachers and peers. They told me I was fully prepared for high school. They told me that my path ahead would be straight and easy with a brain like mine. Fanatic praises were given to me at every corner. Yet, amidst these praises, there were none that truly made me happy from the bottom of my heart. And so, I entered high school with people cheering me on solely from the sidelines, and with no one cheering me on beside me.

Yet, the path to high school was not as rosy as was expected by those around me, and perhaps by me as well. During that first day, that incident occurred. I was seated in Haruno's car, which raced to the school. A dog bolted across the street at a distance to the car that was lethally close. However, a boy dashed out ahead of the dog, grabbing hold of it and protecting it. Haruno slammed onto the brakes, but it was no use. With a loud squeaking of the skidding wheels, the car crashed right into the boy and the dog. My face collided with the airbag.

We were all rushed off in ambulances to the hospital. With my hazy consciousness, I was unable to clearly make out the features of that boy. While I was taken care of in the hospital, I intended to apologize to that boy. However, I was bombarded with visits by my relatives, former classmates, teachers, and many other people who knew me. I was too busy to go looking for his room in the hospital, and I eventually forgot about apologizing altogether. My injuries were light, so I was released from the hospital after a few days. It was only two weeks later that I had remembered about that boy, but visiting him then would have been awkward. In addition, I did not know his name, nor did I wish to make a request to Haruno for anything, so in the end, I was unable to apologize.

Remembering that horrific incident made my stomach churn. That combined with my cold made me feel incredibly unpleasant. I needed to turn myself off and sleep. I dragged myself to my room, and climbed onto my bed.

I dragged the covers over my body. My body gradually became warm. Yet, it was a purely physical warmth. It was not the type of warmth that would fill cold emptiness.

As they say, 'tis the season. However, I felt sombre lying there alone in my room. It was supposed to be a time to rejoice. Yet, I felt that there was nothing worth rejoicing.

The time was seven o'clock. There was still five hours left of Christmas. Was this day supposed to be a special day? It was always just another day of business for me.

My consciousness began to fade as I laid there. Mundane thoughts left my mind. Devoid of substance, I entered into a slumber that was neither nightmarish nor peaceful.

Merry Christmas.


End file.
